From the historic campus of Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan, where the good, the true, and the beautiful are taught, nurtured, and honored, this is the Radio Free Hillsdale Hour, bringing the activity and education of the college to listeners across the country.

From all the fine art mediums that there are, photography has a claim to authenticity that other art mediums don't necessarily share.

And I think photography has been particularly important to shaping even perceptions about historical events and social movements in America.

This is your host, Scott Bertram. Welcome to the Radio Free Hillsdale Hour, part of the Hillsdale College podcast network.

That was Dr. Christina Lam Chakalava, Assistant Professor of Art here at Hillsdale College.

She returns this week for another deeper conversation into the history of American art.

More on that later on in the show. First, we're joined by Adam Kissel. He's visiting fellow for

higher education reform in the Center for Education Policy

at the Heritage Foundation. Also the co-author of the new book, Slacking, a guide to Ivy League

Miseducation. Adam, thanks so much for joining us. It's a pleasure to be here. Thanks.

You recognize your co-authors on the book, Rachel Alexander Comber and also Madison,

Marino Donne. So three authors for

this slacking book that is now out. People see what's happening on college campuses these

days, TV, and perhaps ask themselves, what the heck is going on there? And slacking tries to, at

least in part, answer that question. What the heck is

happening on our college campuses, specifically are Ivy League schools? Well, the moral and cultural

rut that people perceive has a lot of its roots in the failure of the curriculum. The general education core curriculum across the Ivy League,

with the one exception of Columbia University, uses a ways of knowing approach or a distribution

requirements approach rather than having any content at its moral center or its academic center.

What that means is that there's a Emersonian romantic view of what you're supposed to do in college,

which is to pursue your dreams and your own values and have your own self-indulgent ideas take you where your education should go.

In contrast to a classical conception of personhood and morality and core knowledge,

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